Richard III's Hunch Was Scoliosis

Before Richard III's remains were discovered beneath a Leicester parking lot in 2012, historians debated whether portrayals of him as a hunchback, particularly in Shakespeare's play, contained any truth. CT scans and a three-dimensional reconstruction revealed severe adolescent-onset scoliosis, producing a sideways spinal curve of between 70 and 90 degrees. The condition probably made Richard's right shoulder slightly higher and his torso shorter, but he could hold his head and neck straight and showed no evidence of a limp. He did not have kyphosis, the forward spinal curvature associated with a hunchback.

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